


Natural Tendencies

by purajobot935



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Character Study, Friendship, Gen, Nature, Sketches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-22
Updated: 2012-09-22
Packaged: 2017-11-14 19:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/518850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purajobot935/pseuds/purajobot935
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sari thinks about her new Autobot friends and their resemblance to certain creatures...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Natural Tendencies

****  
Natural Tendencies  
  


“Hello? Anybody home?”

Sari stepped carefully into the old broken-down factory that served as a disguise for the Autobots’ current home and base of operations. The place still had a long way to go to resemble anything even remotely homely and hospitable, but the five bots were making progress, she noted, even with the little they had to work with.

“Anyone?” She looked around. “Bumblebee? Ratchet?”

She took a few more steps inside. The place was dark, lit only by a single light bulb overhead, and she fought down the urge to let her imagination take over. There were no monsters here, just five, very large, alien robots who were barely inclined to hurt a fly, let alone a human. Still, it was strange that there was no one around to watch the front entrance – anyone could walk in and mess with stuff. She’d have to talk to them about that later, and convince Ratchet to install a door chime or something that would tell them when someone entered the premises.

“Maybe bells,” she murmured to herself. “Or maybe one with those little jingles, or maybe something electronic-sounding. They might like that, being robots and all.” She scratched her chin, wondering how she could persuade them to go for it.

So she didn’t notice a dark shape drop from the rafters and land silently behind her, then stalk over to her without a sound, until she blinked and found herself staring into its face.

Prowl clapped his hands over his audio sensors as the child let out a piercing shriek and skittered back. “Please lower your noise output,” he said.

She stopped abruptly. “You really shouldn’t sneak up on people like that!” she scolded. Then her tone changed. “That was so cool though, how do you do that?”

“Lots of time and training.” Prowl straightened from his crouch.

Like a cat, Sari thought. Everything about him screamed feline to her, from the way he moved to the way he talked, everything was so smooth and graceful, and she half expected him to sit down and lick his hand like a cat washing its paw. Even his loner-type personality and slightly distant nature, she wondered what could have possibly made him like that. Maybe he got so good at his ninja skills that people got jealous and didn’t want to be friendly with him. She knew what it was like, in a way. Other kids were jealous that she got to grow up around robots, have private lessons, and now hang out with the Autobots.

“Oh,” she said. “Have you seen Bumblebee and the others?”

“They’re around somewhere.” He turned to go.

“Don’t squish me for saying this, but you don’t seem all that friendly with the others.” Sari trotted to keep up with him. “Are they mean to you or something that you don’t seem to want to hang out with them much?”

“It’s just who I am.”

“Okay…”

He knelt before her again. “I can’t change my nature anymore than you can yours, or they can theirs. Changing would mean we’re no longer ourselves.”

“So they’re not mean to you?”

Prowl stood again. “No.”

Bumblebee chose this moment to zip past and screeched to a stop next to them. “Heya Sari! What’re you doing here?”

“Visiting. Where is everyone?” she asked.

“Ah, just around doing stuff. I’m trying to get my room in order.”

“Neat! Can I help?”

“Sure, hop on.” He bent down so she could climb onto his shoulder.

Sari looked around for Prowl, but the ninja-bot had vanished again, probably off guarding the entrance again, she thought as she settled herself on Bumblebee’s shoulder and held on to a strut. The bot’s wheels locked under his feet like rollerblades and they sped off, her hair streaming out behind her. Prowl’s words came back to her, and she thought about her best friend who was busy spinning around corners and speeding down halls.

He really was like a busy little worker bee, always buzzing around from place to place looking for things to do, not really committing to one task, but trying to do a dozen smaller chores in one go. He seemed to like hovering around the other bots waiting for them to give him some task or the other. With Optimus as the queen bee, Sari thought with a soft giggle. Perhaps Prowl was right. Bumblebee was a sociable bot and she couldn’t imagine what he’d be like if he was left all alone. It was in his nature as much as in his name, that he needed to feel accepted as part of the group.

“Whoa!” Sari lost her grip on his strut as he jerked to a stop in front of a large red and white form, landing in his hands. “A little warning next time maybe?” She stood, rubbing her bottom.

“Sorry, didn’t him,” Bumblebee shrugged.

“You would have if you hadn’t been speeding recklessly like some blind turbomouse,” the medic groused. He plucked Sari out of the yellow mech’s hands.

“Hey! Give her back!”

“You’ll get her back once you learn to be a little more careful when you’ve got humans around you.” He stalked off in the direction of his repair bay, Sari cupped carefully in his hands.

“He didn’t really mean to put me in danger y’know,” she said.

“I’m quite aware of that youngling, but you don’t know how many bots I’ve seen hurt someone else without meaning to,” he replied. “Injuries that would not have happened if they’d been a little more careful in the first place.”

He set her down on his work table on which he also had some contraption that he’d been tinkering with. She poked at it curiously and drew her hand back in surprise. It was warm.

“What is it?”

“One of Bulkhead’s internal systems. Silly bot damaged it at a demolition site when part of the structure fell on him,” Ratchet grumbled. “Why he was standing so close to the thing when he swung, I’ll never know and I’m not going to ask.”

“Why not?”

“’Cause I’ll recharge better not knowing.”

“But he’s okay right?” Sari looked up at him.

“Eh, he’ll be fine. Be up and getting himself slagged again as soon as I get this fixed and reinstalled. I was hoping your key could help speed things up a little.”

“Oh, no problem.”

Sari grasped her little key necklace and went closer to the system, watching as it lit up with energy that flowed into the machination. She glanced at Ratchet as this took place and saw him watching the transfer carefully to make sure there were no problems. She wondered how he’d lost part of his chevron, though she didn’t doubt the old bot could hold his own in a fight.

He was like a real mama bear, she thought. In his own nature he cared about those around him. He was gruff with his little brood of cubs, she thought, fighting down another giggle – she doubted she could get away with it around Ratchet as she could with Bumblebee – but he still cared for them. Why else would he have become a medic right? Maybe his chevron broke while he was trying to protect one of them. She was still a little wary of asking outright though. Perhaps one of the others would know.

“There, all done,” she said, stepping back.

Ratchet grunted. “It’ll do.”

“So… where is Bulkhead, can I see him?”

The medic eyed her, then inclined his head to another section of the med-bay. “He’s in there. While you’re at it, tell him that if he so much as moves a servo to get up, I’m ripping off one of his wrecking balls and knocking him out with it.” He helped her down.

“I’m on it!”

She trotted off in the direction Ratchet had pointed out, and peeped round. Bulkhead sat on the floor in a miserable heap of green and grey. He perked up when he saw the little red-head and beckoned her in, starting to rise.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Sari said. “Ratchet’s still out there, and grumpier than usual at you.”

“When is he not?”

“I can still hear you back there!” Ratchet hollered.

Bulkhead slumped back down. “How’s it coming? Please tell me its good.”

“It’s good. My key fixed most of it. Ratchet’s just tweaking a few things. You can go back to destroying architecture in a couple of days or so. Just remember to stand clear before you swing.”

“Yeah, I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

He patted the little girl lightly on the head, then picked her up gently in a massive hand and set her on his knee. Kind of like an elephant with its trunk. Bulkhead kinda reminded her of one, and not just because of his size. He was loud and aggressive most of the time, but under all that noise and metal-muscle, he could also be quite the gentle bot, if he was careful.

“Though… you’ve been doing this job for a long time now. Wouldn’t you know where to stand before you start wrecking stuff?”

Bulkhead looked around nervously before leaning forward and whispering in as low a voice as possible, “I saw a mouse creep into the danger zone, so I dove in to try and save him before he could get crushed. I mean, better me than him right? ‘Cause Ratchet can fix me, but he cant repair a squashed mouse.”

Sari wrinkled her nose up. “Guess not. So did you save it?”

“Oh yeah.” Bulkhead grinned. “He’s fine. Probably wondering just what happened to him, but otherwise fine. Not a scratch on him.”

Yep, definitely an elephant.

The door to the med-bay creaked open again, and none other than Optimus Prime himself walked in. Bulkhead put her back down on the floor again and she stepped out. The leader of this merry band of mechanoids was busy talking to Ratchet about Bulkhead’s condition and didn’t notice Sari until she was almost up to his foot.

“Oh, hello Sari,” he said without missing a beat.

“Hey Optimus, what’s up?”

The bot looked towards the ceiling. “Uh…” His optics looked down at her again. “I’m not quite sure what you mean.”

“It’s a way of asking how you are,” she clarified.

“Ah, in that case, I’m doing well Sari. How are you doing?”

“Peachy!”

Again Optimus looked puzzled. Ratchet sighed.

“May I suggest you continue your education on Earth colloquialisms elsewhere? I have work to do unlike the rest of you glitches,” he said.

Deciding not to risk the wrath of the medic, Prime gently picked her up and strode out of the bay to another part of the old building. She regarded him as they walked and it occurred to her that he seemed rather young for a leader – definitely younger than Ratchet, and possibly around the same age-frame as Prowl. Bumblebee had mentioned that he’d once been enrolled in some fancy academy on their home planet, but had quit for some unknown reason. She wondered what it was, but didn’t dare ask just yet. Though she knew he wouldn’t hurt her, she still felt a little intimidated by him.

Perhaps it was because of the ‘Prime’ attached to his name, that made her think of an alpha wolf and how he was able to keep this varied band of bots together. In certain ways, he commanded a certain sense of respect, and he certainly had hers the day she had watched him sacrifice himself to save her planet. Had it not been for her key….

Sari shook her head a little to dispel the memory. Yeah, he had a wolf-like nature in some aspects, always watching out for his pack – so to speak – and taking the lead in a lot of situations, looking out for danger, keeping the younger bots in order, conveying that quiet sense of authority. She really did wonder what had happened to make him leave that academy. He could have been a great leader.

“Are you alright, Sari?”

She looked at him and realized she’d been staring. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She grinned to assure him all was well.

“You looked deep in thought for a moment there.”

“Well, I was just thinking… you guys could really use an alarm system around here, y’know, to warn you if anyone comes in while there’s no one out front.”

“Hmm… that’s not a bad idea at all. We can't always be watching the doors and it would be dangerous if the wrong people stumbled in. What did you have in mind?”

Sari giggled. “Do you like bells?”

END.

**Author's Note:**

> Written in early 2008 for the prompt of "Nature" on the TFA LJ comm. I wanted to take a different perspective from all the other entries, so I went with this.


End file.
